Category Archive: Tech

MK802 is a popular ARM based super micro computer which can plug directly into any HDMI output for an on the go media player, internet browser, game machine or for general use. It features 1.0GHz Cortex-A8 CPU and 500MHz GPU, 1GB DDR3 memory and 4GB flash storage. The stock Android can be replaced with Ubuntu Linux.
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Verbatim, whose business is memory (and whose name means "to reproduce word for word," by the way) has done a Rick Moranis job on its MediaShare NAS, resulting in the MediaShare Mini. One third the size of its predecessor, this guy retains its slight stature by going the Iomega iConnect route of eschewing on-board storage altogether for four USB ports (so it looks like you'll have to factor the four thumb drives into the purchase price). And like the full-size MediaShare NAS server, this bad boy supports remote access via HTTP, support for a number of handhelds (including the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, BlackBerry, Android, and Palm Pre), Facebook integration, DLNA-compliant media streaming, and more. Look for it now for an MSRP of $90. Read the rest of this entry >>

The highest-quality method to encode and deliver a 3D video program is to store and deliver it as a dual-stream synchronized video program, with one full-quality video stream for each eye. This is how Blu-ray 3D works, storing the video for each eye as a full “Blu-ray quality” video program.
The HDMI 1.4 specification provides for 3D stereoscopic video to be delivered in several different ways, including over/under-formatted frames that are 1920 pixels wide and 2205 pixels high. The frame for the left eye and right eye are delivered together, to assure that synchronization is always maintained, even if the signal is momentarily lost and then restored.
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A low cost apparatus for capturing stereoscopic video is described and footage from the apparatus is presented in anaglyph form.
A piece of L-shaped extruded aluminum was cut to length and drilled. Cameras are attached with 1/4-20 panhead machine screws, 1/4" nylon washers, and 1/4-20 wingnuts. The apparatus is attached to a quick release shoe for use with a tripod. Cameras are manually activated for simultaneous filming. A 6.5cm baseline is used (similar to human eye baseline). Longer baselines can be used to increase parallax when filming distant objects. Left and right video channels are processed and composited in video editing software. Audiovisual cues are used to synchronize the video streams. Depth may be adjusted by changing the x-direction offset between the right and left video channels. Total cost for cameras and materials: USD 250.

No sooner do we ask about just how many readers actually give a hoot about multi-channel audio, in comes this. Considering the plethora of folks in the exact same situation, we knew right away it'd made a beautiful Ask Engadget HD question. Without further adieu:
"I recently splurged on a hot new plasma, but now I am looking for a surround sound system to complete the joy. My issue is that I currently live in a rental property, and don't have the luxury of poking holes in walls to set up my system. I know there are a few options out there for people in my position (sound bars, wireless rear speakers, PowerLine?) but I have no idea which gives the best surround sound result. I was looking to spend no more than $2,000."
We'll be honest -- almost anything is possible at $2,000, unless that includes the price of a few (very) nice drivers. We've seen solutions from Rocketfish and a slew of other companies that essentially enable users to add two rear surrounds sans wires when running cabling towards the back proves problematic, but often these are underpowered and flaky at best in actual use.

NVIDIA's cutting-edge CUDA tech is cool, and it's been talking about throughout the internet. Also it's attractive to us, we started cuda working from the start of the year. After a period of hard working, we finally successfully integrated it into MediaCoder, it's very awsome. We can't wait to annouce it and publish the test report.
The report mainly compares transcoding performance between CUDA-accelerated H.264 and X264. There are two parts, one is performance on HD encoding, the other is on low resolution encoding.
近两年NVIDIA的CUDA技术似乎成为业界新宠，其优良的科学运算加速能力确实首屈一指，引领着并行运算潮流，各行业都纷纷采用它来加速，搞得我们也跃跃欲试，呵呵，另外还有很多网友对MediaCoder的厚爱，希望在MC上体验一下CUDA加速的快感，于是我们决定了用CUDA加速MediaCoder转码。
年初我们几个开发人员就开始酝酿着采用CUDA加速H.264编码，毕竟H.264现在比较火，还是比较有前途。经过一段时间的紧张的开发，CUDA加速的H264编码器终于诞生，让性能卓越的MediaCoder有添一利器。废话不多说，下面贴一下内部测试的结果以飨各位网友，主要与x264编码性能做个对比。
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